Cold. And uninspired.

December 6, 2011

It’s cold. It’s been rainy. It actually snowed today — flurries, nothing sticking. It’s the kind of weather when usually I love to cook.

And I have in fact cooked. Three nights in a row, in fact. None of them were that exceptional. All of them were OK. And in part, it’s because I haven’t felt like eating.

None of them were particularly photogenic, either. So you ain’t got no pictures. Deal with it.

I got in Sunday a bit before lunch, and rustled around in the freezer until I found some chicken breasts that needed to be used. So I browned them, and then cooked up a coconut curry sauce. Ate one breast, NS ate one, and I shredded the rest of the meat and put it back in the sauce to go over rice, probably tomorrow night.

Monday night, it was burgers. Nothing unusual or exceptional about them — just burgers. With potato skins. Good burgers. Not noteworthy.

Tonight, it was something at least a bit more creative; I soaked a pound of cranberry beans last night, and this morning, put them on to cook in the crock pot with some ketchup, some mustard, some molasses, and about a pint of shredded pork barbecue left over from when I’d baked country style ribs in barbecue sauce late last week. Added some pimenton de la vera to give it a little bit of a smoky taste. Made a nice, meaty soup. Different.

I’m on tap to cook venison chili for work on Friday. I do damn good venison chili. And my Memphis guinea pig is coming over for the weekend, so we will likely have that long-awaited cassoulet; I’ve got the two pounds of Great Northern beans and the duck confit and most of the other stuff except fresh ham hocks and pork skin; I think I may just do without that. Got to pick up some pancetta and some proscuitto. Oh, yeah, and I need to get pork shoulder; the only pork shoulder roast I could find at Kroger Monday night was a big sucker for 20 bucks, and I passed.

Have ordered pork shanks from my local grass-fed beef/pork/lamb purveyor (I have to stop calling them PJF, as they are no longer going by that name. I want to say they’re now Mountain Meadows, but surely one would not name an organic farm after a massacre. It just ain’t right. Perhaps it’s Mountain Pastures. Or something like that. I think I’ll refer to them as cow, pig, lamb, et. al., au naturale. Or maybe just nekkid meat, which just sounds much more crass.

In any event, I have pork shanks coming, and I have apple juice, and I am going to try my damndest to recreate that beauty I had at Murphy’s. That may be Christmas dinner, which I hope to have here in the Spa City after returning from assorted Christmas travels and travails. I also have a smoked turkey coming. May have to get someone to pick it up for me.

I doubt we shall starve, in any event.

Hope you and y’mama ‘n ’em are having a lovely holiday season and staying warm. If you’re watching basketball, take a minute and donate to cancer research via the Jimmy V foundation.